Melody of the Strings
by Rhamana
Summary: My latest fiction. Features my OC exorcist.
1. Prologue

My latest fic! This is my OC's story =) Hope you enjoy it, got some good plans for this.

_**~*~Melody of the Strings~*~  
~*~Prologue~*~**_

The thick, acrid smoke hung in the air, choking all who breathed it in. The stench was unbearable. It smelt of rotting, burning flesh, burning paper, gunpowder. Death. Coughing and spluttering, one solitary woman inched her way painfully from the gutted cottage. She'd lost everything. Her home, her mother, father, daughter. All gone, claimed in seconds by this foul twisted machine _thing_ in front of her. It hadn't seen her yet. Carefully, she lay there, looking as dead as she possibly could. She felt dead inside. _Mum.. Dad… Jess.. _She half considered throwing herself in front of this monster, so it would kill her too, so she could be with her family. She smirked to herself. She'd be damned if she was going to be a quitter now. Raising her daughter by herself after her good for nothing lover ran off after she told him she was pregnant. Looking after her frail and elderly parents. _When you're 24 and you think your life is over.. that's just… sad. _But it was how she felt. Slowly, she stood up, ignoring the pain in her side and right leg. She was going to quit. Closing her eyes as the machine whirled round to see her, she smiled. 'See you soon, Jess'

'_Ozuchi Kozuchi! Shin!' 'Cross Grave!' 'Enbu, Kirikaze!' _

Startled by the sudden flurry of voices, she opened her eyes, to see a redhaired blur streaking towards her, one arm outstretched. The next thing she knew she'd been scooped up away from the monster, her own red hair streaming in her face. A huge flash of brilliant white light, and a huge gust of wind followed by an even larger explosion. Then she passed out.

'Nee, Allen-kun, what are we gonna do with her? She's out cold!' ...a playful voice.

'I don't know Lavi, but we have to get her some medical assistance.' …an English accent?

'Guys, I think she's coming around..' … a gentle, female voice…

Groaning, her eyes flickered open, and she tried to push herself into a sitting position. Three anxious faces crowded round her. They looked like children.. Two boys, one girl.. 'Are you ok miss?' the white haired boy asked. 'Eh.. I.. I think so.. But my family…' the woman bit back a sob. She would not cry in front of children. 'We're sorry. We got here too late.' the redhead said bitterly. She noticed he wore an eye patch. The poor child. 'Can you stand?' the girl asked gently, offering her hand to the woman. She nodded, and took the hand, lifting herself to her feet with a slight stumble.

'What was that… _thing._' she asked, thinking these children must know something about it. They glanced at each other, before the white haired boy spoke. 'That was an Akuma. A living weapon.' 'A..Akuma?' the woman stammered. This was a little more than she could handle. 'Let's go somewhere a little more comfortable.' the girl said, smiling gently up at the woman. 'What's your name? I'm Lenalee, this is Allen and Lavi' she said, pointing to the white haired boy and the redhead in turn.

'Lorraine.' the woman stated simply. Grimacing at a sudden shooting pain in her leg, she looked down to see an awful lot of blood. Her blood. She promptly fainted again.


	2. A New Home

**_~*~Melody of the Strings~*~_**

**_~*~Chapter 1~*~_**

**_~*~A New Home~*~_**

Lorraine woke from a restless sleep, she kept having nightmares, flashbacks. Terrible visions of her family, being shot, these strange black stars forming on their faces, before they shattered and crumbled to dust. How had she remained sane after watching her two year old daughter meet such an untimely and sickening end? Shifting her head, she scanned her surroundings. She assumed she was in an inn, the Hessian curtains the same as used in most inns. Sitting up slowly, she checked her leg. Last time she looked it was pouring blood… Sighing in relief she saw it was bandaged up, with crisp white linen bandages. She swung her legs off the bed and carefully tested her leg. It didn't hurt when she put pressure on it. Slowly, she stood up, and unsteadily wandered to the window, to look out. The sun was glaringly bright, and it made her wince and drop the curtain back down. Carefully she slipped on the black shoes that were placed neatly by the bedside, pulled on the pale blue cardigan that was draped over the chair and opened the door. Her stomach was commanding to be fed.

Walking down the stairs, she was greeted by quite a few faces. Three of which she recognised as the children who had saved her from death. There was also an elderly man in the same clothes as the three of them, and a man in a pale sand coloured hooded anorak, his face partially bandaged. The young girl smiled up at Lorraine, before walking over to her and offering her her arm. Leading her to the table, she sat her down. 'You must be hungry, what do you want to eat?' Lorraine flushed slightly. She had rarely been treated this nicely. Except by her parents.. Her eyes welled with tears as she thought of her mother and father, smiling, walking with her through the countryside, laughing together… she would never see them again..

She jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see the white haired boy - Allen - smiling gently down at her. 'We need to speak with you Miss Lorraine, its about this..' he pulled out an object from his jacket that made Lorraine cry out softly. 'My harp! Where did you find that?'

'This is what we came looking for. Its not just a harp. It contains a fragment of a substance called Innocence. The one saving grace for this world not to be plunged into darkness eternal.' 'And we think you might be a host.' the redhead - Lavi - finished for Allen.

'Uh.. Ok?' Lorraine said, utterly dumbfounded. She didn't know right now if she was coming or going, and these kids think she's a host for this weird stuff they're talking about? She must have looked confused, because the old man started to speak quietly. He explained in more depth who the Exorcists were, gaining himself an odd expression from Lavi, who remained silent throughout. He also explained more about the Innocence, mostly the piece that apparently resided in her harp. This confused her. How had it even gotten in there? Her father had bought it for her as a present.. It was what had inspired her to learn several musical instruments, the harp remained her favourite though.

'But I don't understand how my harp could be anything special… It's just a harp..' she said, picking it up and plucking its strings absentmindedly. A loud scream of wind suddenly picked up, and a huge cloud of dust followed by a loud explosion. When the dust cleared, Lorraine blinked and saw that part of the building was missing. Feeling quite awkward because Lenalee, Allen and Lavi had scrambled from where they were standing into a heap away from the now missing walls, she placed the harp down and sat staring at her hands in her lap. She wouldn't do that again…

Bookman coughed and continued. 'Like I said, your harp contains Innocence, and that proves that you are indeed an Innocence Host. I'll have to ask you to accompany us to the Black Order headquarters. Welcome aboard.'

Lorraine blinked again. Did she not get any say in this herself? Feeling quite uncomfortable and equally confused, she simply nodded. A small meow rang out from the broken wall, and Lenalee rushed over to check. With a small comforting sound she picked up a tiny black kitten, with huge golden eyes and a crimson red collar.

'Maria!' Lorraine exclaimed. 'You're alive!' she rushed to scoop up the little scrap of a thing out of Lenalee's arms. Maria purred happily as Lorraine scratched her ears. 'You're the only family I have left now, Maria.' Lorraine smiled sadly at the top of the purring cat's silky head. 'You have us now too, Miss Lorraine.' Allen smiled to her. 'The Black Order is like a home for all us Exorcists, and that includes you now too.'

Lorraine simply smiled. At least she had something to take her mind off everything that had happened.

Lorraine gaped as she stared up at the huge black castle that loomed ominously ahead. 'Welcome home, Lorraine.' Lavi smirked, looking at her from his comfortable position, leaning with his back on the back of the boat. Lorraine gulped. _This_ was 'home'? Maria stirred from her lap, where she had lain asleep for the last hour and mewed quietly. Lorraine bent her head and scratched her ears soothingly, starting slightly when the boat bumped against the canal bed. End of the line, she thought, standing carefully and stretching herself out.

An odd looking man in a white coat, with a white beret, glasses and fluffy white slippers was waiting for them. God if he didn't look eccentric Lorraine didn't know what did. Sipping from a mug with a pink rabbit on he smiled happily at them all as if they were his children home from a long trip. 'Okairi, mina-san.' he said, making a beeline right for Lenalee, glomping her tightly.

'Tadaima, Komui-san' Allen smiled, looking a little amused at the display of affection Komui gave to the girl.

'Nii-san! Get off me!' Lenalee complained loudly, attempting to shove her brother off her. Lorraine smiled, Lenalee reacted the same way Jessica had to her constant hugging. She loved the little girl so dearly even if her father didn't want to know.. Shaking her head from that train of thought she carefully stepped out and shook hands with the man known as Komui.

'A pleasure to meet you, Mr Lee, my name is Lorraine Jenkins. I believe I find myself at your mercy.' she smiled brightly, as if her heart wasn't breaking into a million pieces inside.

* * *

Woo, first chapter done! I hope you like it, I'm trying my best to make Lorraine not a typical Mary-Sue, shes actually loosely based on myself which I will admit. So I'm trying to make it how I would react in these situations. Hopefully it will make it more believable :p

Let me know how you like it!


	3. Meetings

_**~*~Melody of the Strings~*~**_

_**~*~Chapter 2~*~**_

_**~*~Meetings~*~**_

Lorraine followed Komui, Lenalee, Allen and Lavi through the depressing main entrance of the Order. It seemed that the building was a drab old castle, made of huge gray stones. Surprisingly it wasn't all that cold for being so immense inside. Bookman had excused himself at the canals, saying he needed to go to the library to gather information for his next mission. She thought he was a strange but interesting man, and wondered how knowledgeable he was. Maria was still cradled in her arms, thankfully Komui had allowed the kitten to stay, although it may have had something to do with how incredibly cutely Maria looked at Komui, Lorraine was sure she saw him melt instantly at the sight of the little thing. Realising she should probably be listening to Komui's rambling, she stopped letting her mind wander.

After a while Komui excused himself and made his way back to his office, asking Lenalee to show Lorraine around. The boys had decided to tag along for the fun of it, seeing as Komui told them all they were officially off duty for the rest of the day, and debriefing was unnecessary. Lorraine looked around the huge hallway they were walking along, they were going to visit the canteen as Allen had complained voraciously that he was hungry.

The canteen was brightly lit, with an incredibly high ceiling and huge bay windows. It was probably the nicest room she had seen so far today, and guessed she would enjoy painting in here once things had settled down. Queuing for food, Lorraine realised she hadn't found a menu. By the time she got to the ordering hatch, she was taken aback by the sight of the resident cook, Jerry. He was a little more eccentric looking than Komui.. 'Uh, can I get a sandwich?' Lorraine asked, feeling quite nervous.

'Oooh, a new exorcist? And a friend of my favourite exorcists, Allen, Lenalee and Lavi? it's a pleasure to meet you my dear, what's your name and what do you want on it honey?' Jerry smiled, a large, pleasant smile that Lorraine couldn't help but return. 'I'm Lorraine, and can I have ham please?'

'Of course you can, Lorraine. Anything to drink with that?' 'Green tea please, no sugar. Oh and can I have a small bowl of milk for my little friend here' Lorraine smiled back, holding up Marie and feeling incredibly welcome here already. Jerry nodded in acknowledgement and in record time had a lovely thick ham sandwich, a large cup of green tea and a bowl of milk for Maria on a tray ready for the two hungry ladies.

Lorraine followed Lenalee and Lavi to a table, one she assumed they always sat at as it was oddly unoccupied with enough space for them all. Turning round to look at Allen she noticed Jerry looking incredibly happy with the young boy. Shrugging it off she turned back to sit down, putting Maria's bowl on the floor under her, said kitten mewed happily and began to lap at the milk.

'Yo, Yuu-chan' Lavi grinned happily at someone, someone who walked over with a face like thunder. Lorraine smiled at the newcomer, a little nervously from the look on the girls face, she was Japanese she assumed, with beautiful long silky dark hair tied back into a high ponytail. She couldn't help but think she looked oddly familiar. She assumed she was a girl, because Lavi used the 'chan' suffix, which was usually for girls and children. She didn't understand why the 'girl' had such a scary scowl on her pretty face.

'Hello Miss, I'm Lorraine, its nice to meet you. You're such a pretty girl' Lorraine smiled at Kanda, who turned to face her with the same face she had given Lavi, who was currently behind Lorraine doing his best not to laugh. Well, he wasn't doing his best to be honest.

'Miss? Girl? Baka usagi did you put her up to this?!' Kanda demanded, in a voice that was decidedly NOT feminine. Lorraine blanched. Had she made a huge faux pas? Oh god, she had. It was a guy! And she just called him a pretty girl!

'Ahh, I'm sorry, Yuu-kun! I didn't realise you were a guy!' she smirked with her apology, unwittingly making another faux pas. Calling him Yuu. Even with the male suffix, it was still not ok for her to call him Yuu. But Lorraine didn't realise this yet.

'Ahh, Yuu-chan, dameyo~' Lavi whined at him, as Kanda rounded to look at the poor usagi, as if it was all his fault. Ignoring the bunny's plea he unsheathed Mugen and began to incant the first illusion. Lavi made a break for it, and Kanda suddenly felt a stinging slap on his face.

'Just because you don't like something doesn't mean its ok to start attacking them! Apologise right now Yuu-kun!' Lorraine said sternly. Kanda went to snort in her face and tell her to mind her own business, but saw a look of anger that rivalled his own and backed down in a show of uncharacteristic meekness.

'…Sorry..' he mumbled, looking away from both Lorraine, and the cowardly bunny who was cowering behind her. 'Baka usagi..' he added under his breath.


End file.
